Iran May Have Been Hit By A Cyberattack That Blasts AC/DC

Was Iran’s nuclear program “Thunderstruck”? For years now
Iran’s nuclear program has been subjected to
persistent cyber attacks, code designed to interfere with the
hardware at work in that country’s centrifuges and reactor
centers in Natanz and elsewhere.

While the total impact of these online incursions remains
somewhat unclear, it now appears that a bizarre form of hacker
humor has been introduced in the form of heavy metal.

Information provided by F-Secure Security Labs today reveal
that an Iranian scientist working for the Atomic Energy
Organization of Iran (AEOI) reported that a cyber worm affected
two facilities (one in Natanz and another near Qom) with “some
music playing randomly” at high volumes on workstations during
the night: “I believe it was playing ‘Thunderstruck’ by AC/DC,”
reports the scientist. The full text of the alleged email
is
available here.

F-Secure does outline the fact that details of this attack remain
unconfirmed, though it would not be the first time that hackers
probing Iran’s nuclear facilities have left behind clues with
their own brand of wit. The now ubiquitous Stuxnet worm, said to
have been deployed by the U.S. and Israel, has been said to
contain
obscure biblical references within its code. As The Register
rightly points out, stealth is generally a desired trait of
espionage attacks, and subjecting Iran’s nuclear scientists to
shredding guitar solos seems to be the
antithesis of that.